It went into the official stat sheet as: "D. Watson pass deep left to W. Fuller for 34 yards, TOUCHDOWN."
But in Thursday's 41-25 win at Detroit for the Texans, there was quite a bit more to that fourth quarter score.
After the Texans defense stuffed a 4th-and-1 run at the Lions 34-yard line, Deshaun Watson and the offense trotted on to the field.
Watson handed to Duke Johnson, who went right. He was bottled up, turned around, and tossed the ball back to Watson. From there, the Texans quarterback found a lonesome Will Fuller V on the left sideline. The receiver gathered in the pass at the Lions' 16-yard line, sprinted into the end zone, and gave the Texans 41-23 lead after the Ka'imi Fairbairn extra point.
"That's something where we wanted the exact look (from the defense)," Watson said. "Really, when I called the play, Duke looked at me and was like 'Hey, if we got pressure, I'm going to keep it. I'm not going to pitch it back."
Johnson strung the play out wide to the right, and indeed looked like he would be stopped for a loss on the play. But Watson chirped up.
"When he kept it, I just called him and was like 'Hey Duke! Duke!'," Watson said. "I was yelling his name, and he just turned around and threw it back to me."
From there, Watson launched it to Fuller, who did the rest.
Fuller, meanwhile, said his job "was easy" because of Johnson's work.
"That was really Duke," Fuller said. "Duke did a great job playing backyard football and making it happen. Because when I turned around I just saw a lot of people around Duke and he still had the ball. So I didn't know if it was going to work or not, but he found a way."Â
Interim head coach Romeo Crennel had a simpler explanation of the score.
'I don't know the name of the play," Crennel said. "He made the call and we executed the play'
For Watson, it was his fourth touchdown pass of the afternoon. It was the second he threw to Fuller, who had six catches for 171 yards after the trick play.
Fuller and Amari Cooper are the only receivers in the NFL since 1990 to have 170 receiving yards and two touchdown catches in a Thanksgiving Day game.
Watson meanwhile, passed Matt Schaub (12) for the most games with three or more passing touchdowns in franchise history. He has also recorded the most touchdown passes (23) in the first 11 games of a season in franchise history.
